Digital Fabrication Labs

The Digital Fabrication Labs—or FABLABS— are collaborative communal spaces dedicated to supporting the creative process, developing problem-solving skills, and empowering the community through emerging technologies. The FABLABS consist of the UPLAB with tools for 3D printing and a wire bender, a PCLAB with 3D modeling software, and a BASE LAB equipped with a laser cutter and waterjet cutter.

While many colleges and universities limit access to digital fabrication resources to specific majors, at MassArt all students are encouraged to learn and use these cutting-edge technologies. Across majors, students are exposed to these resources in classes, workshops, and trainings. Students also learn how to use machines from start to finish, rather than sending models to staff members who handle printing for students a common practice at other learning institutions. Studio manager Adam Zapotok also noted that “many times these [digital fabrication] spaces end up in a back corner with not much support,” but at MassArt “We were given a beautiful space and great support from the College.”

CHRISTIAN DE RESTREPO ’15 → BFA Fashion Design, Studio Manager - Fashion Design

Christian De Restrepo, is a Boston-based American/ Colombian maker who explores intimate human emotions by transforming unusual and mundane materials through an obsessive, almost ritualistic process. His most recent project, “A El Mismo’’ explores, builds, and brings to life the notion of a stolen ancestral future. Inspired and driven by his family’s immigration to the United States from Colombia, he proposes an alternative timeline where the Spanish Colonization of Latino America hadn’t occurred, offering instead a visual narrative to what Pre-Hispanic cultures from Colombia, like the Musica and Tairona, might have looked like if they had the chance to thrive into the 21st century.

For President Grant’s inauguration, De Restrepo created custom designed regalia using his signature textile. He noted that the final piece “highlights the strength of a new leader, with the structured sharp shoulders, as well as a core lesson I learned at MassArt: learning to look at things not for what they are, but for what they could be.”